ICE MEDICAL MISCONDUCT WITNESS SLATED FOR DEPORTATION IS A U.S. CITIZEN, SAYS LAWYER
In recent weeks, after Alma Bowman became a key witness for medical misconduct at an immigration jail, ICE moved to deport her.
https://theintercept.com/2020/11/02/ice-medical-misconduct-us-citizen-deportation/
ALMA BOWMAN, a 54-year-old woman in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, was scheduled for deportation on Monday. For over two years, Bowman has been held at Georgia’s Irwin County Detention Center, the site of
growing concern about
medical neglect and
coerced gynecological procedures performed on nearly 60 women. She has been a key witness, for attorneys and journalists, of a doctor performing the allegedly unnecessary or overly aggressive procedures.
She is also a U.S. citizen, according to her lawyer and documentation reviewed by The Intercept.
“I’m just scared,” Bowman told The Intercept about her potential deportation. “I always had this fear that I’ll lose touch with my family.”
Though she was ordered removed from the country on June 4, ICE only took action to begin her deportation in the last few weeks — after the public became aware of allegations of medical misconduct at Irwin. Following the initiation of deportation proceedings against her, a lawyer finally began reviewing documents for Bowman’s immigration case and realized that she had documentation indicating her U.S. citizenship.
On Monday morning, ICE denied a stay of removal for Bowman, potentially setting up her deportation. On Monday afternoon, Bowman’s deportation was halted, for now, and she was to be returned from Arizona, where she was being prepared for her departure, to a detention center in Georgia, her advocates told The Intercept.
